This space will be used by me to keep you updated on what I'm working on, and how soon you can expect to be able to see the finished product. Right now, a lot of work is going on behind the scenes, dealing with all of the boring parts of getting a business up and running.

In the meantime, however, content still is being written and reviewed. I'll give a quick recap of what I've been up to:

The Variants Handbook: I've been reviewing and polishing up my own entries, getting them ready for playtesting. Right now, I'm working with spontaneous cleric and druid variants (the Shaman and Naturalist base classes, respectively), an Arcane Archer re-write, an alternative epic spellcasting system, and a mechanism for mitigating racial HD to make playing "monster" characters less penalizing. The crunch is pretty much done on all of them, and I've been touching up ambiguities in the wording and making a final tweak or two. I'm also working on the associated flavor text the will help bring the classes to life, as well as sample characters that will demonstrate the classes' capabilities.

I've also been reviewing the work from the rest of the team (and they review mine), and I'm quite impressed with what we're going to be able to put out. Next step is to start some structured playtesting to see if anything needs additional tweaking.

On top of all of that, I've been doing some preliminary layout of the whole kit and caboodle. By the time we finish the unfinished pieces, add the flavor text, and insert illustrations, I'm hoping to see a good, solid 120+page book.

The Ouroboros Mentality: I've been working on what could be deemed "infrastructure", which in this case means coming up with a new psionic discipline and associated powers to be incorporated in the campaign to be used by NPCs (and PCs, if they want) and as PLAs for our custom creatures. I have a working version, but there are a few powers "borrowed' from the Telepathy discipline that I still want to replace.

Instant Encounters: This is a new project that I've kind of taken point on. The general idea is to create a series of books with about 30-50 fully fleshed out encounters each, including complete stat blocks, tactics, treasure, and even pre-calculated initiative rolls. Each book would focus on a specific environment or other theme and cover a small range of encounter levels (roughly a spread of 5 encounter levels). A DM can use these encounters to help quickly build an adventure, or even just insert an encounter "on the fly" if the situation calls for it. I'll see about getting a preview posted soon.

Other: While we're quite busy at the moment, I still have a backlog of ideas I'd love to work on, some of which tinker with in my spare time. For example, legal questions pending, I've got the start of a book called Invocation Magic underway, which will, if/when complete, introduce a whole new set of invocation-based classes all based on a simple core mechanic (that existing invocation classes that we won't be able to name in a book could easily convert to), prestige classes, new invocations, associated feats, and maybe new magic items.

Here's an update on The Variants Handbook, where I've been very busy compiling all of the material and putting it all together in a nice, consistent, and hopefully easy to use format.

Now, I certainly can't guarantee that everything I'm about to list will make the final version of the book, but I'd be willing to bet that most of them will, and there's still the possibility of having more added.

To date, we have 18 new or completely revamped classes -- 9 base classes, an additional 2 psionic base classes, a psionic NPC class, and 6 prestige classes. Lots of loving has been given to Fighters and Monks to make them more fun to play, and those wanting spontaneous casting versions of Clerics and Druids should not be disappointed either.

There are some 40+ new performances for Bardic music. There are currently 18 new or modified Monk styles.

There are, if I counted correctly, currently 112 new or modified feats; this number is more likely to increase rather than decrease as certain sets are completed. There are also a couple of different variant systems included for how to award feats.

There aren't too many new spells (4), but there are 24 new psionic powers, with at least another 4 more on the way, and a new Psion discipline. There are also two new Clerical domains.

And that's all just in the "Building Characters" section of the book. The second part of the book goes into new and variant rules options to use in your games, but I'll get into that another time.

Again, I'll stress that none of this is final, and in the latter stages of review and playtesting we may need to remove certain aspects, but I just wanted to let everyone get an idea for how much material a book like this is going to cover.

Things are starting to get busy... we're now recruiting playtesters for The Variants Handbook and The Ouroboros Mentality, with Ten Thousand Days coming soon. As we start getting feedback, I'll keep you posted on how things are going.

Playtesting goes... slowly. I think it's just the general time of the year, plus the general excitement and distraction of the D&D 4e release. We've gotten some good feedback in the theoretical areas, and tried to incorporate many of those ideas into rewrites and revisions. We could still use more playtesters.

Invocation Magic is starting to shape up nicely. It probably won't wind up being the thickest book ever printed, but it'll be quite full of not just a set of classes, prestige classes, feats, and invocations, but also guidelines on how to create or modify your own invokers and how to fit invokers into a campaign world. By the raw numbers, the work in progress has 4 base classes, 2 original prestige classes, 4 adapted prestige classes, 13 feats, and 82 invocations. As it is a work in progress, there are still some "holes" that need to be filled to make the book the complete reference it is intended to be; expect to see the number of original prestige classes increased by another 3-6, the number of adapted prestige classes and feats roughly double, and I'd be surprised if the number of invocations doesn't eventually exceed 100.

I'm going to ruminate on Invocation Magic again, despite the fact that it's currently fourth or fifth in the production queue, well, because it's my pet project, and therefore I like writing about it.

From a "mechanics" standpoint, the concept of the book is simple -- I took the essential ideas behind invokers, deconstructed them, and built them back up to a much more flexible core mechanic. The details of this mechanic will be included in the book to allow readers to use the same principles to create their own material on the same concepts, or to have guideline on how to adapt the existing material to their specific games/campaigns.

The next step is obvious -- creating a set of base classes that use the new mechanic. This serves two purposes. 1) It provides solid "out of the box" mechanics (and associated "fluff" for a generic medieval fantasy setting) for players and referees to simply plug into their games and use as written. 2) It also serves as a set of examples showing how the mechanic can be applied, and as a yardstick to measure new creations against.

As much as the base mechanic is flexible, the individual base classes are far more focused. Each one has a distinct flavor, as represented in their selection of class features and the list of invocations that they can use; the flavor of each represents a specific classic archetype. Some of the classes have strong preferences toward party roles, i.e., melee attacker vs. ranged blaster vs. battlefield control; others are flexible enough to choose in which path to specialize. As these classes get more and more refined, similarities between them are then used to refine the core mechanic.

Prestige classes fall into two main categories: adapted and new. The core mechanic explains how to adapt existing PrCs for invokers; in many cases it is very straightforward (e.g., the Eldritch Knight and Mystic Theurge), while in others it requires a bit more customization (Thallherd is a prime example here). For the new PrCs, there are again two sub-types: simple dual-progression PrCs (along the lines of Mystic Theurge, but using different sources), and truly custom PrCs that are unique to invokers. In any case, the design philosophy is the same -- each PrC requires a trade-off in order to gain the benefits; the dual-progression PrCs offer more flexibility at a loss in maximum power while the others may limit flexibility and/or power in exchange for unique, but more specialized, abilities.

The invocations themselves are generally inspired by the classes that use them. For example, the Avenger (see preview) strongly suggests the need for invocation weapon enhancements that could change the type to non-lethal damage, or perhaps be more effective against evil opponents. Other invocations emphasize the charismatic and commanding nature of Avengers.

Of course, many invocations are straightforward adaptations of existing spells or psionic powers, with modifications to make sure their ability to be used at-will doesn't make them ripe for abuse. Other invocations are distinctive to invokers, though one could easily see them converted into spells or powers in a traditional magic or psionic setting, even if invokers themselves aren't in use.

No book of this type would be complete without new feats. So, we have those too -- some that improve the invoker's abilities, others that make multiclassing with invokers easier. Add in a smattering of new and adapted magical items, and possible even a few custom creatures, and Invocation Magic becomes a complete addition to a campaign, as well as a reference for expanding on the concepts.

Finally, the book devotes a chapter to the process of making invokers work within a campaign. While essentially just advice, it provides a list of things to think about (with examples) when introducing a new type of magic, including whether or not it supplements existing magic or replaces it.

On the whole, things are wrapping up nicely. There are some loose ends to tie up, places to polish, and some options to be added, but I'm quite happy with the work in progress and hope to be able to see it in print soon.

--

Naturally, given my devotion to the project, the publication of Invocation Magic won't be the end of it for me. In parallel, though naturally lagging the main book, we're working on a campaign setting featuring invokers. This setting intentionally has significant differences with the generic fantasy setting, primarily to illustrate how the mechanics in Invocation Magic can be adapted to non-generic settings, but also providing a novel setting for players and referees to explore and enjoy. As of now, we haven't decided whether it is just going to be a setting or an adventure series (or both!), but developing the backstory and the "world" is the first step in either case.

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